FINALE 2007

I've been using Sibelius for about 4 years now, and I've gotten very, very used to how I input my notation. For the first 3 years or so, I would always use the mouse to do everything--I didn't even realize that the keyboard was set up to help speed up the process. So I got pretty quick, doing everything with the mouse. But then I started using the keyboard--and more and more, the process went a lot quicker. If I wasn't on a laptop it would go alot quicker I'm sure, because then I could use the standard keypad layout as displayed(in a very user-friendly way) plainly in the program, for note durations(which I just use the mouse for now, but my mouse stays there as I use the keyboard to input pitches).

I've found that Sibelius and Finale greatly differ in the way things are selected--like what you can do to the note when it's selected. In Finale, you have to click on the tie tool before you input the note, and you have to DESELECT it for the next note, if it doesn't need a tie!! In Sibelius, you input a pitch, THEN click on tie(which means if you weren't sure if the note needed a tie in the first place, you don't have to delete the note), and it doens't continue to the next pitch! So much faster, in my opinion.

But I will look into the Entry Tutorial, as I do want to learn Finale as well as I know Sibelius. I figure both programs have problems and both have features that are useful for what I want to do. Sibelius has some problems, and I hope those problems are non-existant in Finale.

Although one thing I have not been able to figure out is how to have different staves with different time signatures!! I have figured out how to make it displayed in Sibelius, but it's very complicated and quite tedious. It plays it back fine, however. But in Finale, the only thing that's close is completely wrong! Anyone have any suggestions? (in Finale, it interprets 'different meters' as one voice playing 7/8 in a measure of time while another plays 6/8 in the same measure of time, 8th notes are not equal, and that's not what I want)

I've been using Sibelius for about 4 years now, and I've gotten very, very used to how I input my notation. For the first 3 years or so, I would always use the mouse to do everything--I didn't even realize that the keyboard was set up to help speed up the process. So I got pretty quick, doing everything with the mouse. But then I started using the keyboard--and more and more, the process went a lot quicker. If I wasn't on a laptop it would go alot quicker I'm sure, because then I could use the standard keypad layout as displayed(in a very user-friendly way) plainly in the program, for note durations(which I just use the mouse for now, but my mouse stays there as I use the keyboard to input pitches).[/b]

You can enable the numberpad on your notebook, likely by using the function key and pressing numlock. The numbers are on the jkluio etc. keys. I believe Sibelius also has an option for using these keys without enabling numlock. But I do recommend investing in a separate keypad for your notebook, as it's just easier.

I've found that Sibelius and Finale greatly differ in the way things are selected--like what you can do to the note when it's selected. In Finale, you have to click on the tie tool before you input the note, and you have to DESELECT it for the next note, if it doesn't need a tie!! In Sibelius, you input a pitch, THEN click on tie(which means if you weren't sure if the note needed a tie in the first place, you don't have to delete the note), and it doens't continue to the next pitch! So much faster, in my opinion.

But I will look into the Entry Tutorial, as I do want to learn Finale as well as I know Sibelius. [/b]

Yes, one of the things you'll discover in that tutorial is that you don't have to select the tie tool. Just like in Sibelius, there's a key for adding a tie to the last note you entered. There's even a key for adding a tie backwards to the previous note, and optionally, a key to let you add a tie to the entire chord. Finale is actually more forgiving about this type of thing than Sibelius. In Sibelius, objects must either be selected after you enter the note (as with ties and tuplets), or with most objects, before you enter the note (augmentation dots, accidentals, and articulations). I actually find that it causes me to make quite a few errors, since intuitively I like to write a note down first and then add the augmentation dot, the articulations, and the accidentals. With Sibelius I often forget and have to go back, since all of these things must be selected before you actually enter the note.

Finale lets you go both ways with all of these objects. You can enter a note and then add the tie, tuplet, augmentation dot, accidental, articulation, etc. - or if you know that you're going to be entering a bunch of them, you can turn them on as "sticky." So if you're entering consecutive tuplets, you press the sticky tuplet shortcut key and notes go in as tuplets. Or the sticky sharp key to enter a bunch of notes with accidentals. Or sticky staccatos, etc. Since I can always add an element after entering the note, and I'm not forced to pick everything I want for a note before I enter it, Finale doesn't cause me to make nearly as many mistakes - I almost never need to back up. And since I can turn things on as sticky whenever I want, I can save a lot of time.

Although one thing I have not been able to figure out is how to have different staves with different time signatures!! I have figured out how to make it displayed in Sibelius, but it's very complicated and quite tedious. It plays it back fine, however. But in Finale, the only thing that's close is completely wrong! Anyone have any suggestions? (in Finale, it interprets 'different meters' as one voice playing 7/8 in a measure of time while another plays 6/8 in the same measure of time, 8th notes are not equal, and that's not what I want)

This is complicated in both programs. I suggest searching the forum at www.finalemusic.com, as there have been discussions about this in the past. Both Finale and Sibelius require barlines to line up, and you basically have to fake it to get the right appearance and playback.

Yeah, faking it is what ticked me off about it in Sibelius. Oh well. I'll check out the forums if I ever want to continue that specific piece.

And tonight: Onto learning Finale! Yay...But, getting back on topic, I'm not going to look into another finale version for a while. 2007? 2008? Who cares? If 2006 does what it should, then that's good enough for me.

Well, hopefully the upgrades from 2006 will make it worth getting. I'm pretty happy with '06, but it can always improve.

I've heard 2007 will have loads of new features, such as linked parts and a much bigger library of stuff for use with the GPO. I think it will actually be able to PLAY divisi. That would be nice... no more creating two staves for two flutes! I plan to buy the upgrade.

Well I'm definately going to upgrade. I must, because it is new and and I have this strange compulsion to.

I've heard 2007 will have loads of new features, such as linked parts and a much bigger library of stuff for use with the GPO. I think it will actually be able to PLAY divisi. That would be nice... no more creating two staves for two flutes! I plan to buy the upgrade.

Can you explain a little more about what you mean here? In 2006 you should be able to get multiple parts playing from a single staff.

This is just a guess, so I apologize if I completely misunderstood you:

If you are using a solo flute staff with GPO sounds and finding that you can only hear one note played at a time from the staff,

1. go to the MIDI menu >> Native Instruments VST Setup.
2. Click the Edit button next to the Finale GPO slot that includes the channels your flute is on (if unsure, try them all).
3. This opens the GPO player. Find the solo flute here and click its slot (slots spread horizontally across top)
4. With the flute selected, look for the "polyphony indicator." This appears as a tiny note icon with two numbers next to it - likely showing 0/1 right now.
5. Click directly on that 0/1, hold the mouse button down, and drag upwards to increase the numbers to something like 0/6. Basically the higher it is, the more sounds you can hear played simultaneously from that staff (but also the more CPU power it takes, so don't go overboard).

6. Close the player and listen to your music. You should be able to hear multiple notes on the flute staff. You can do this for any staff. At times I'll increase it for the solo instruments and decrease it for some of the others, like percussion or string sections, which are set quite high by default.

Keep in mind that 0/2 doesn't necessarily completely cover 2 simultaneous notes at once, since sometimes the release of one note is still going on during the start of another, even in the same voice. 0/6 seems to be a good compromise.


Regarding voices, Finale 2007's new feature relates to linked parts and the ability to automatically pull notes into different parts from a single staff in the score.

I know how to do that. What I mean by divisi-playing is that Finale will, I think, be able to interpret "divisi" or "tutti" or "solo" markings, having two patches play on the same staff and bringing them in or out appropriately.

Now wouldn't that be just plain awesome?

Although I don't think there's anything in 2007 that changes how this works, it is something you can accomplish now with 2006 via expressions set to make channel changes. For example, in the GPO player you could load the flute solo patch to the first slot and then flute player 1 and flute player 2 to the second and third slots. You'd set the first slot to be channel 1, and the second and third slots to channel 2. Then you set a solo expression to access channel 1 and the tutti expression to access channel 2.

Interesting... that's something I've never tried. It'd make playback a lot more realistic without having to deal with an insane number of staves. On the other hand, it seems a lot of work-intensive. Without saving a blank document with some massive orchestra setup and all the GPO and expressions plugged in so you can load it each time you write a new work, you'd have to redo all that setup every time you begin something. Very tedious. I look forward to when that's all preset into the system so you just have to attach two patches or so and put in a library-supplied expression!

...By the way, can you save the expression library for a specific file as the default expression library for a new file? Because that would be immensely helpful. I often have to create the same expressions for each new file I make, and this way I could make my own vast library of expressions and use it for every piece. Huge time-saver.